Celebrating Multicultural Dance at O-Jak Bridge Dance & Art Festival
MiYoung Margolis on Connecting Cultures Through Art
Name pronunciation: Me-Young Mar-gole-is | Pronouns: she/her
By Madison Huizinga, DWC Blog Editor
Part of what makes the Seattle area such an inspiring and vibrant place to live is the diversity embodied across its inhabitants. Throughout the region, artists of all genres showcase their unique backgrounds and help cement feelings of community through their own innovative creations. Local artist MiYoung Margolis is interested in not only celebrating Seattle’s cultural diversity in dance but also bringing multiple cultures together through art. That’s why she and the rest of MiYoung Margolis Dance Collective are presenting the first annual O-Jak Bridge Dance & Art Festival, an event aimed at engaging audiences in an elevated multicultural performance art experience. Buy tickets for this one-night-only event on November 5th, 2022 at 7:00 PM at Broadway Performance Hall in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.
MiYoung is a lifelong dancer and artist who has trained mainly in ballet, modern, and traditional Korean dance styles. She is the creator of MiYoung Margolis Dance Collective or MMDC, a Seattle-based dance company specializing in performance art that blends contemporary dance with various cultural traditions, including those inspired by MiYoung’s Korean heritage.
The name of O-Jak Bridge Dance & Art Festival is inspired by the Korean folk tale of Ojakgyo, or the “Bridge of Crows and Magpies.” The tale is about two lovers who are vastly separated but meet together on July 7, the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, when crows and magpies form a bridge to unite them. MiYoung points out that Seattle is a multicultural city that often has community events centered around individual cultures, often in their own silos. Thus, she created the O-Jak Bridge Dance & Art Festival as a way to “bridge” the gap between these different cultural events and bring performers together for one night to celebrate art on an upscale stage.
Poster Art by: S.L. Yang
“My purpose is to create a platform that brings these talented local artists to an elevated stage,” MiYoung says of her mission behind the festival. She hopes the event inspires performers and audience members to embrace the unique facets of different cultures while enabling explorations of fusions between traditional and contemporary dance traditions. The juxtaposition of tradition and modernity is a theme MiYoung enjoys exploring in her own choreography as well.
O-Jak Bridge Dance & Art Festival is set to have an array of guest performers, in addition to performances from MMDC. The festival will feature performances by KOSMIX, a dance group that covers popular K-pop dances around the Seattle area. MiYoung looks forward to KOSMIX bringing a youthful energy to the festival line-up. Eurasia Virtual Academy & Ensemble is another guest performer, featuring artists specializing in dance from Central Asian cultures, as well as classical Russian-style ballet. Adage Ballet Studio, founded by PNB dancer Abby Jayne DeAngelo and former PNB dancer Guillaume Basso, will also showcase excerpts from Swan Lake, including a pas de deux danced by the founders themselves. Finally, Parmida Ziaei, an Iranian American designer, performer, choreographer, and MMDC dancer, will be a featured artist/choreographer at the festival, showcasing a modified version of her work Journey, centered around the concept of immigration.
MMDC’s choreography often involves elements of contemporary, ballet, or tango styles of dance, which are used to help facilitate the telling of Korean-inspired stories. MMDC plans to showcase three dance pieces, including a version of MiYoung’s piece “The Wind of Fate,” a dance originally set as a duet that will be reworked as a group performance. Throughout her choreographic work, MiYoung enjoys blending traditional elements of Korean culture, such as music or costumes, with more non-traditional contemporary movements to defy audience expectations.
On September 10th and 11th 2022, MMDC performed during Chuseok, a traditional Korean mid-autumn harvest festival in honor of the full moon. The dance company’s performances in Gig Harbor and Tacoma, Washington acted as a preview of what to expect at the O-Jak Bridge Dance & Art Festival in November.
Poster Art by: S.L. Yang
In the coming years, MiYoung hopes to make the O-Jak Bridge Dance & Art Festival an annual event. And in the spring of 2023, she plans to organize another Seattle dance festival centered around solos and duet performances. Stay tuned to MMDC’s social media for more information.
Be sure to buy tickets for the first annual O-Jak Bridge Dance & Art Festival on November 5th, 2022 at 7:00 PM at Broadway Performance Hall in Seattle, Washington.
About the Author
Disclaimer
All content found on the Dancewear Center Website, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and all other relevant social media platforms including: text, images, audio, or other formats were created for informational purposes only. Offerings for continuing education credits are clearly identified and the appropriate target audience is identified. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this Website.
If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor, go to the emergency department, or call 911 immediately. Dancewear Center does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on dancewearcenter.net. Reliance on any information provided by dancewearcenter.net, Dancewear Center employees, contracted writers, or medical professionals presenting content for publication to Dancewear Center is solely at your own risk.
Links to educational content not created by Dancewear Center are taken at your own risk. Dancewear Center is not responsible for the claims of external websites and education companies.